Huawei bucks declining tablet shipment trend.

Huawei bucks declining tablet shipment trend

A Strategy Analytics report found most top tablet vendors were in negative territory during the quarter, with Huawei alone generating annual growth with shipments of 2.8 million (up 37 per cent year-on-year). The shipments gave the Chinese company a 6.7 per cent market share in Q1 2017.

Amazon’s shipments were flat at 2.4 million units, while market leaders Apple and Samsung registered declines during the quarter.

Apple shipped 8.9 million iPads, a 13 per cent drop from 10.3 million in Q1 2016, while Samsung shipped 6 million tablets, a 6 per cent drop from 6.4 million last year. Apple ended the recent quarter with a 21.2 per cent share, and Samsung 14.3 per cent.

Despite the drop, Strategy Analytics said Apple and Samsung are “moving in the right direction,” as shipments edge “back to breakeven and both vendors refine their 2-in-1 tablet offerings”.

Explaining Huawei’s rise and Amazon’s stable performance, the research firm said the two branded Android vendors “capitalised on low cost tablet demand as White Box vendors” and focused on “more profitable, high growth product segments”.

Total global Android tablet shipments of 26.9 million units in the recent quarter were down 11 per cent from 30.1 million a year earlier. Windows shipments also fell, down 2 per cent year on year to 6.3 million units in Q1 2017, from 6.4 million in Q1 2016.